Nestle expanding Anderson facility for fifth time, but not adding jobs

3/3/2017

Nestle expanding Anderson facility for fifth time, but not adding jobs

ANDERSON – For the fifth time since opening its facility in Anderson, Nestle USA has received approval for an expansion.

The Anderson Board of Zoning Appeals on Wednesday approved a special exception for an amended planned industrial development in the 4300 block of West 73rd Street.

Nestle plans to expand the existing automated storage and retrieval system with a 30,400-square-foot addition. No new jobs will be created by the expansion, officials have said.

Tim Stires, deputy director of the Anderson Municipal Development Department, said a completion date and the cost of the expansion have not been determined.

He said the building is refrigerated and used to store packaged product prior to shipment.

Nestle started operations in Anderson in 2006 and expanded the plant in 2008. It expanded the water treatment plant in 2010 and revamped landscaping the same year. Also in 2010, the company upgraded the truck dock and expanded the office space, cafeteria and locker room.

Project developer Tim Byers said automated cranes load and unload product from the rack system inside the plant.

The BZA also approved a variance for the expansion of the Mar-Jon Motel in the 1300 block of East 53rd Street.

Owner Jay Patel plans to construct 17 additional rooms and a two-car garage on the back of the existing 16-room motel.

The variance permits a 10-foot rear setback instead of 20 feet because the motel property borders a farm field.

Patel's request for a waiver from installing sidewalks along 53rd Street was denied.

John Suko, chairman of the BZA, said the board has required other developers to install sidewalks.

Board member Rudy Williams said now is the perfect time to add sidewalks in front of the business.

“Everyone wants a waiver not to install sidewalks,” he said.

Patel agreed to construct the sidewalks within two years.

The board approved a request from Modern Trailer Sales for a special exception to fill in a 13-acre area on the east side of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for additional storage space.

The property was rezoned in 2015 and travel trailers are being stored there currently.

Steve Servies of Servies Engineering & Surveying said the special exception to fill the property should have been requested at the time of the rezoning, but there was an oversight.

Stires said the fill will be completed within nine years and Modern Trailer Sales agreed to keep mud and dirt off 53rd Street.

Modern Trailer Sales agreed to install sidewalks on the west side of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard within the next five years.

The decision to place the sidewalks on the west side of the road instead of the east side was agreed to because sidewalks are being constructed along the former Carter Lumber site.